John Dougherty gave the watch a few days later to a woman friend as a birthday present, according to the documents.

Prosecutors asked a judge to allow them to use the watch gift as evidence against Donald "Gus" Dougherty, president of Dougherty Electric, who is no relation to John Dougherty.

Prosecutors also said in their filing that they want the jury to hear about more than $892,000 in payments to Dougherty Electric that John Dougherty authorized from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98's job-subsidy program.

The feds said that Gus Dougherty later converted more than $740,000 for his personal use.

John Dougherty is business manager of IBEW Local 98.

Gus Dougherty pleaded guilty last month to 98 counts of theft, bribery, tax evasion and other charges, but pleaded not guilty to two counts of making illegal payments to the union leader. He is scheduled to stand trial on May 19.

The allegedly illegal payments involve the sale of a Jersey shore condo to John Dougherty for less than its fair-market value and $115,600 worth of improvements to the union leader's Moyamensing Avenue home.

The feds say Gus Dougherty didn't bill the union leader for the work until after he learned he was under federal investigation.

It is a federal crime for a contractor to give anything of value to an officer of a labor organization that represents the contractor's workers.

Prosecutors said they want jurors to hear about the watch and job subsidy payments to show that Gus Dougherty gave other things of value to the union leader and had a financial motive for making the allegedly illegal payments.

The union leader has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His lawyers have said that neither he nor his union have done anything improper and are, in fact, victims of Gus Dougherty's crimes.

According to prosecutors, Gus Dougherty purchased the Cartier watch for $5,533 at the Cartier store at King of Prussia Mall on Nov. 6, 2004 and gave it to the union leader.

Four days later, John Dougherty gave the watch as a birthday gift to a friend identified in the court filing only by the initials R.C., prosecutors allege in their filing.

The feds say they haven't found any evidence that John Dougherty reimbursed Gus Dougherty for the watch.

Sources say R.C. is Rachel Cohen, a Comcast senior executive and Democratic fundraiser.

Rachel Cohen is identified by name as a potential witness for the government in Gus Dougherty's trial in a separate court filing by prosecutors.

Cohen, 36, was described in Philadelphia magazine in January as one of 76 people to watch in 2008.

The blurb noted that Cohen, a lawyer, had quintupled employee contributions to Comcast's political action committee by matching them with corporate charity donations and helped to hire more minority vendors.

Cohen did not return a message left on her work voicemail yesterday.

Lawyers for Gus and John Dougherty also could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Gus and John Dougherty have been pals since they were boys.

When Gus Dougherty was indicted last June, U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan described the condo deal and renovations done to John Dougherty's Pennsport residence in 2004 and 2005 as "sweetheart deals."

The indictment said that the contractor sold John Dougherty a North Wildwood condo in 2003 for $24,000 below its fair-market value and did not bill the union leader for $115,600 of work Gus Dougherty performed at the union leader's Pennsport home until after he learned the feds were investigating him. *